“WAVES OF HOPE”, a charity concert organised by Rotary District 3220 and the Western Musicians Association (WMA), will be held on February 8, 2026, at 7:00 PM at the Radisson Blu (Hotel Galadari) Ballroom. The event is dedicated to supporting communities and families affected by Cyclone Ditwah, bringing people together through music and compassion.

TAKE on Art × KALĀ returns this January as a cross-border contemporary arts platform, bringing together leading artists, curators, scholars, and cultural practitioners from across South Asia. Taking place over the opening weekend of 17–18 January 2026, with the exhibition open to the public until 15 February 2026, the programme positions Colombo as a vital site for regional artistic exchange.

There was a time when a truly nasty comment online still caused a pause. Someone would call it out. Someone would say this is too much. Someone would at least acknowledge that a line had been crossed. Now it just blends into the feed, sandwiched between memes and news updates, ordinary enough to scroll past without thinking twice.

This week, I have a lot to say. The kind of week where everything feels connected, but trying to write about all of it would dilute the point. So I’m sticking to one topic, because it kept resurfacing in conversations, in news cycles, in comment sections, and in that familiar feeling of watching the same pattern play out again and again.

You’ve seen them everywhere. Pinterest-perfect vision boards with dream vacations, fitness goals, and career milestones. Maybe you’ve even created one. You pinned the images, felt motivated for a week, and then... nothing happened.

I’m sure most of us living in Sri Lanka have visited locations on the island that include a Fort . The most likely example is Galle Fort, our biggest Fort and a UNESCO location dating back to the sixteen hundred. It’s my favourite Fort on the island, just walk the ramparts at sunset , mind blowing . I had the opportunity at the last Galle Lit. Festival to visit the normally no go area behind the police station, likely the oldest area of the f

ARTRA Trail 2026, taking place at the Lionel Wendt Gallery in Colombo (Jan 16-22) and across Galle Fort (Jan 23-25), primarily revolves around the poignant and timely exhibition, ‘Silenced’ curated by Azara Jaleel. Featuring the works of 15 contemporary artists of importance, this group exhibition responds to erasure, reflecting the shifts within the socio-political context of Sri Lanka from the 1980’s to the 2020s. The showcased works respond to

Christmas is magical, but the people who create that magic behind the scenes rarely get the spotlight they deserve. Today’s guest is someone I admire deeply, not just for her creativity, but for her work ethic, her clarity, and the way she has carved her own powerful space in an incredibly competitive industry.

Once upon a time, a meaningful life came with a checklist: wake up at 5 a.m., drink celery juice, conquer the career ladder, travel the world, maintain glowing skin, have perfect relationships, read 30 books a year, and always be present.

This week’s RihView isn’t about pretending things are calm. It’s about sitting with the contradictions. The quiet personal reckoning that happens in early January, alongside the very real reminder that power still moves aggressively and consequences are uneven. And somewhere in between, people are turning to stories - books, fiction, words - just to cope.